We are fortunate today that most of the nations of the world are democracies. This only happened very recently. For much of human history, society has adhered to the belief that birth is the most important determining factor of one's future. In Elizabethan England this was especially true. Those born into the nobility enjoyed a life of privilege, while those born outside their ranks existed primarily to serve them. A century later, the English encountered an even more severe form of this belief when they conquered India. The British also viewed the Hindu caste system as overly restrictive, dictating one's future based on birth, just as British society did. After gaining control of the subcontinent, the conquerors attempted to supplant the caste system with some semblance of meritocracy. The new subjects of the Empire, instead of accepting this imposition of the values ​​of a foreign culture, responded with general discontent and discontent, demonstrating that no society, no matter how unjust or prejudiced, tolerates interference well. Shakespeare's King Lear demonstrates the same point: that any violation of society's conception of natural order leads to chaos, and that the only way to restore harmony is to conform to that society's expectations. It is important to distinguish the concept of nature present in King Lear from the images it evokes in modern culture of picturesque forests teeming with every sort of adorable squirrel and squirrel imaginable. As Sarah Doncaster states in her essay “Representations of Nature in Shakespeare's King Lear,” nature in Shakespeare's hands “is a social construct, which is used to legitimize the existing social order.” The idea that... middle of paper... a mock trial for his unfaithful daughters. He regains only a modicum of sanity when he is saved by Cordelia, who treats him as he deserves, giving him fresh clothing and restorative medicine. When Lear awakens in his presence, he is not entirely lucid, does not know where he is or surroundings, but the doctor declares that "The great anger you see is killed in him" (IV. vii. 90-91). Once Lear is restored to his former majesty, his madness is tamed. The imbalance of nature is corrected, and as a result, the mind of the king of nature is healed. Works Cited Doncaster, Sarah. Representations of nature in King Lear. Shakespeare online. August 20, 2000. January 6, 2014. .Shakespeare, William. The tragedy of King Lear. Ed. Louis B. Wright and Virginia L. Freund. New York: Washington Square, 1957. Print.